Hardin Sea Wolf?

[sailmontana]

I have been looking in to a so called "bluewater cruiser" in Mexico, namely the area of Sonora and this bomber of a yacht came up. Has anyone heard of and have any sailing history, pro's-con's on the Sea Wolf 40'? It looks like a tough cruiser but how much is too tough; meaning too slow. I want a sailing vessel, not a motor-sailer, that can do a comfortable 5-7 knots when it should. It has a full keel and is a ketch rig roughly in the 30000 lb range with approximately 750 cu sailing area.
Any info would be much appreciated. If you feel so inclined what else should I be looking in to for a tough cruiser in the 35k to 50k range? I like the protection of a full keel, low heel angle, not too tough to sail, does well to weather and has a roomy interior. Not too much too ask is it!?

[Celestialsailor]

I'm going out on the limb here but allot of the problems with the Taiwan boats is they had teak teaks that gave problems. Although I have wood spars (from the US), many of those boats had problems with theirs. It's just a personal thing but I stick with US built boats. My boat is full keeled with 900 ft of sail. She may not be the fastest boat but has no surprises either...good luck.

[GordMay]

swami maximus has a Hardin Seawolf 41 - perhaps he’d comment:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...imus-5074.html

Bill Hardin started the CT (Ta Chaio) yard with two Chinese partners in the Taipei area (northern Taiwan) with the original William Garden designed Sea Wolf 40, the Sea Sprite, and the original Garden designed Force 50.
He left CT soon after, taking his Sea Wolf molds with him.
But his Sea Wolf 40 was copied by many yards and sold as CT41, Island Trader 41, Yankee Clipper 41, Sea Tiger 41, Transworld 41, etc., a very popular traditional ketch. The Force 50 molds were taken to Hudson Boat Company in the Taipei area, but the Force 50 was also copied as an Island Trader 51, Formosa 51, etc.
This copying problem is why it was nearly impossible to get a set of drawings from a Taiwanese builder.

[sailmontana]

thanks for your input, great information. i will check in to the sites listed and see what i can find.

[manimaul]

Many of the hardins do not have teak decks or wooden super structures and therefore don't posess the leaking problems associated. I've been aboard one in seattle, the hull was very thickly laid up about 1.5 to 2 inches. The construction seems to be good from my perception. I'm curious how well they perform under sail as a cruiser. And, can they point at all? Obviously they're a heavy, full keel boat. I did notice that they have somewhat of a flat hull shape amidships all the way aft before the keel begins to decend. Perhaps someone with experience sailing/cruising a hardin 41 or 45 cc could comment.